Battle of Cape Henry

16 March 1781, Off the Virginia Capes

Indecisive; the French went back to Newport

Washington asked the French squadron at Newport to carry troops to Virginia to trap Benedict Arnold, now a British general. Destouches sailed, but Arbuthnot followed from New York and caught him off the Capes. The French line did the British van serious damage, but Destouches did not press on into the bay: he went back to Newport, and Arbuthnot's ships anchored in the Chesapeake and kept it open for the British army. Six months later the same waters saw the battle that decided the war.